Thank you for visiting! This blog is a hodgepodge of things that interest me such as writing about our family and our new adventure into soap making, advocating for orphans & adoption, providing links for freezer meals we like etc. etc. We are a Christian, homeschooling family with 9 children: 1 was born in China, 5 in Colombia 3 are biological. Welcome! I hope you find something that interests you :)
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Happy Birthday, Kevin!
I wanted to send a special "Happy Birthday" today to my husband. This past year I have seen you become an amazing, caring, supporting father - not that you already weren't, but it was to 9 children in the midst of working out all the attachment issues, bonding and all that other stuff we have been experiencing. Thank you for loving us and caring for us - for opening your heart to where God wants to take you. You are "one of a kind", and we are so glad you belong to us!
Friday, July 26, 2013
Why the name "Global Soaps"?
Thank you for asking! :) It took us a long time to come up with just the right name to represent our family and our business. If you are visiting for the first time and getting to know us, then you may not know that we have been blessed with 9 children: 3 are biological and born right here in the US (2 in Georgia and 1 in Michigan), 1 we adopted from China back in 2010, and the other 5 we added to our family from Colombia in February! So... we like to think of our family as rather "global".
One other reason for the name Global Soaps is that we have big plans for our biz - we would like to go global! But for now, we are taking baby steps by building a website, creating a logo, learning how to charge tax and ship our product out (that is really confusing to me!), testing other products to determine if we would like to offer them to all of you (this is the FUN part!) and so on... In a later post, I'll let you know what products we are testing. We want to make sure that everything we offer will be used on our own family, on our children, before we offer it you and your family.
Thanks for visiting, and please don't forget to take a look at the inventory sale we have going on until the end of July. We have had a great response from the sale and from our local farmer's market so we have run out of a few items (temporarily!), but there are still a lot of great quality good-for-your skin bars being offered. Take a look here!
Karen
One other reason for the name Global Soaps is that we have big plans for our biz - we would like to go global! But for now, we are taking baby steps by building a website, creating a logo, learning how to charge tax and ship our product out (that is really confusing to me!), testing other products to determine if we would like to offer them to all of you (this is the FUN part!) and so on... In a later post, I'll let you know what products we are testing. We want to make sure that everything we offer will be used on our own family, on our children, before we offer it you and your family.
Thanks for visiting, and please don't forget to take a look at the inventory sale we have going on until the end of July. We have had a great response from the sale and from our local farmer's market so we have run out of a few items (temporarily!), but there are still a lot of great quality good-for-your skin bars being offered. Take a look here!
Karen
Monday, July 22, 2013
Introducing Global Soaps!
It's official! We have the name, the tax id number and are in the process of creating the website at www.globalsoaps.com! It's amazing how much we can actually get done around here when we aren't cracking open the books for homeschooling :) For now, the best way to order our soaps, lotions or lip balms is right here on this blog. Just click here. Plus, we added a facebook link to our Global Soaps page on the top right-hand side. If you are on facebook, please "like" us. When we reach 100 likes we are having a give-away!
Last Wednesday we participated in our towns weekly farmer's market. A customer there said her son had eczema and asked which type of our goat's milk soap I would recommend. I told her that all goat's milk soap was good for dry skin, but the one I would recommend the most was the shea butter. We know our soap is good, but I was so happy to hear how it had helped her 2 year old son with his severe eczema. She said it made a difference! She didn't know it, but that's exactly what we want to do with Global Soaps - we want to make a difference, to enrich lives. I know that sounds a little silly, enriching lives with a soap company, but with God's help and with us keeping our focus on Him, we can do it.
One of the major aspects of Global Soaps will be orphan awareness/education and adoption. Our family has a desire to help those who are adopting by offering fundraisers. The details are still in the works, but I know it will happen. So if you are in the process of adopting and may be interested in a fundraiser with goat's milk soap, keep an eye on us for when we work out the details.
Tomorrow we are going to visit a company who produces soap-making equipment. They don't have a physical store, but they are letting us in to see what they have - very grateful to them for that! I'm sure we will walk away with something to help us handcraft bars more effectively than what we are already doing (which will help in the adoption fundraisers).
They have equipment that will allow a person to make 100's of bars at one time. (Excuse me while I drool a little over just thinking about that! Hey - it's good to like what you do!). As much as my mind wanders to 100's of bars curing on soap racks at a time, we are going to take it pretty slow by praying, making a game-plan and learning how we can work up to the BIG equipment. It's baby steps with a balancing act. Enough about that. On to goat-talk.
This is Velvet and DD. DD is Velvet's mom. They are mini-alpines, and the first goats we owned. Velvet loves to chew on shirts. When you think about goats who eat anything, she is the perfect representative of that image! DD is cool, calm and collected.
Oh, this shot was taken by our oldest daughter, CJ. She won two Champion ribbons for her photography at our county fair last week and is going to state with her black and white shots - very excited for her! We added a page above about the rabbits she raises, sells and shows. Be sure to check out her site, as she built it herself.
Please continue in your prayers for our family. The children are all doing really well, and I know it is because of the prayers!
Karen
Last Wednesday we participated in our towns weekly farmer's market. A customer there said her son had eczema and asked which type of our goat's milk soap I would recommend. I told her that all goat's milk soap was good for dry skin, but the one I would recommend the most was the shea butter. We know our soap is good, but I was so happy to hear how it had helped her 2 year old son with his severe eczema. She said it made a difference! She didn't know it, but that's exactly what we want to do with Global Soaps - we want to make a difference, to enrich lives. I know that sounds a little silly, enriching lives with a soap company, but with God's help and with us keeping our focus on Him, we can do it.
One of the major aspects of Global Soaps will be orphan awareness/education and adoption. Our family has a desire to help those who are adopting by offering fundraisers. The details are still in the works, but I know it will happen. So if you are in the process of adopting and may be interested in a fundraiser with goat's milk soap, keep an eye on us for when we work out the details.
Tomorrow we are going to visit a company who produces soap-making equipment. They don't have a physical store, but they are letting us in to see what they have - very grateful to them for that! I'm sure we will walk away with something to help us handcraft bars more effectively than what we are already doing (which will help in the adoption fundraisers).
They have equipment that will allow a person to make 100's of bars at one time. (Excuse me while I drool a little over just thinking about that! Hey - it's good to like what you do!). As much as my mind wanders to 100's of bars curing on soap racks at a time, we are going to take it pretty slow by praying, making a game-plan and learning how we can work up to the BIG equipment. It's baby steps with a balancing act. Enough about that. On to goat-talk.
Oh, this shot was taken by our oldest daughter, CJ. She won two Champion ribbons for her photography at our county fair last week and is going to state with her black and white shots - very excited for her! We added a page above about the rabbits she raises, sells and shows. Be sure to check out her site, as she built it herself.
Please continue in your prayers for our family. The children are all doing really well, and I know it is because of the prayers!
Karen
Sunday, July 7, 2013
It's About Time for Some Pics!
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| Tyler just hanging around! |
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| Diego, Jaime and Briyic playing with BIG balloons! |
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| That a boy, Jaime! |
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| Hang on, David! |
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| Beautiful. |
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| This is when we first met the children! |
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| Um... swings are fun... aren't they??? This is Diego and Brayan. |
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Hello!
Well, I know I said I would get some pictures on here. And I will. Soon. I just have to copy them over from my husband's computer onto this one, and then we will get some posted. Sorry! It is on my to-do list!
I am extremely busy during the day cleaning, cooking, cleaning, cooking, cleaning... did I mention cooking? We eat often! I was completely spoiled in Colombia by being blessed with Rosario cooking for us. Then we get home and for 3 weeks we get dinner brought to our door. I am way out of practice. Can you believe I have not made a grocery list since we have been home? (That's on my to-do list also!) I just keep pulling things out of the freezer that we froze from our garden two years ago - carrots, zucchini and such. Plus, we have lots of rice and beans stored.
The thought has actually crossed my mind that we could just skip a meal. I mentioned this the other day to our Colombian kids. The one that understood me, Jaime, just grinned and shook his head no at me. So I fed them :)
Right now, I'm protesting. There are a bunch of dishes calling to me from the kitchen, but I'm drowning all the yelling out (from the dishes) with the aching of my legs and arms and with how nice it is to be typing on this blog again!
My arms and legs ache because Kevin and I were outside, with Tyler, for many hours today hauling wood and clearing an area for our buck, a Nigerian Dwarf goat who has yet to be named, and who is about 7 months old. I am very excited to breed him to our two Mini-alpines, Velvet and DD. We also have a full size Alpine, Alana, who is in milk, and her 1 month old buckling. The buckling we will sell. I REALLY like getting fresh milk from Alana.
Which reminds me, I need to get myself out of this chair to go feed Alana... I'll go ahead and post this now because I have no idea when I will sit myself down in this chair again :) Hopefully, soon!
Oh, we are going to start making our goat milk soap again tomorrow. We are going to be making it and selling it as a family business. If you have any favorite scents, be sure to let me know! In addition to the soap, we will soon be trying our hand at goat-milk lotion. I just need to get a couple more ingredients.
Talk to you later!
Karen
I am extremely busy during the day cleaning, cooking, cleaning, cooking, cleaning... did I mention cooking? We eat often! I was completely spoiled in Colombia by being blessed with Rosario cooking for us. Then we get home and for 3 weeks we get dinner brought to our door. I am way out of practice. Can you believe I have not made a grocery list since we have been home? (That's on my to-do list also!) I just keep pulling things out of the freezer that we froze from our garden two years ago - carrots, zucchini and such. Plus, we have lots of rice and beans stored.
The thought has actually crossed my mind that we could just skip a meal. I mentioned this the other day to our Colombian kids. The one that understood me, Jaime, just grinned and shook his head no at me. So I fed them :)
Right now, I'm protesting. There are a bunch of dishes calling to me from the kitchen, but I'm drowning all the yelling out (from the dishes) with the aching of my legs and arms and with how nice it is to be typing on this blog again!
My arms and legs ache because Kevin and I were outside, with Tyler, for many hours today hauling wood and clearing an area for our buck, a Nigerian Dwarf goat who has yet to be named, and who is about 7 months old. I am very excited to breed him to our two Mini-alpines, Velvet and DD. We also have a full size Alpine, Alana, who is in milk, and her 1 month old buckling. The buckling we will sell. I REALLY like getting fresh milk from Alana.
Which reminds me, I need to get myself out of this chair to go feed Alana... I'll go ahead and post this now because I have no idea when I will sit myself down in this chair again :) Hopefully, soon!
Oh, we are going to start making our goat milk soap again tomorrow. We are going to be making it and selling it as a family business. If you have any favorite scents, be sure to let me know! In addition to the soap, we will soon be trying our hand at goat-milk lotion. I just need to get a couple more ingredients.
Talk to you later!
Karen
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
To Colombia and Back Again!
Hello!
I know it has been a REALLY long time since I last posted, but our lives have been turned upside down and we are just now finding our way right-side up again :) As the time drew near for us to leave for Colombia, my time on the computer continued to dwindle. I had every intention of (and REALLY wanted to!) posting while we were in Colombia and adjusting as a new family, but those first few weeks were hard and we were exhausted. I praise God that things are now going well. Yes, we have trials and adjustments every day still (we have been home just over 2 weeks), but compared to what it was like in the beginning, it is very good.
One of the major changes in my own life from adding 5 more children to the family is that my time is no longer my own. That sounds really selfish on my part. Before we brought home the 5 we had 4 other children, but because of their ages, they were beginning to do more on their own and care for themselves.
The three oldest (11, 13 and 15) were pretty independent as far as chores, schoolwork, picking out their clothes, cleaning their rooms, etc. I was only really helping Lyric, our daughter from China, who is now 5, so I had that spare time to read, blog, search the internet, facebook... But now, because the youngest just turned 2, the ages of our younger children are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7! My time is no longer my own, and about 95% of the time that feels really good. (The other 5% is my selfishness when I want to do things only for myself. Like stay in bed all day long or watch movies at night until I can no longer keep my eyes open!)
Maybe saying "my time is no longer my own" isn't exactly what I want to get across. "I'm doing more for others (our 9 children) and less for myself" may be more along the lines of what I'm trying to say. Doing for others just feels right. I am so glad that God put adoption on our hearts.
In Christ,
Karen
P.S. I'll try my best to post again really soon - with pictures! For now, I need to go milk our goat, do the laundry, clean up, etc etc...
I know it has been a REALLY long time since I last posted, but our lives have been turned upside down and we are just now finding our way right-side up again :) As the time drew near for us to leave for Colombia, my time on the computer continued to dwindle. I had every intention of (and REALLY wanted to!) posting while we were in Colombia and adjusting as a new family, but those first few weeks were hard and we were exhausted. I praise God that things are now going well. Yes, we have trials and adjustments every day still (we have been home just over 2 weeks), but compared to what it was like in the beginning, it is very good.
One of the major changes in my own life from adding 5 more children to the family is that my time is no longer my own. That sounds really selfish on my part. Before we brought home the 5 we had 4 other children, but because of their ages, they were beginning to do more on their own and care for themselves.
The three oldest (11, 13 and 15) were pretty independent as far as chores, schoolwork, picking out their clothes, cleaning their rooms, etc. I was only really helping Lyric, our daughter from China, who is now 5, so I had that spare time to read, blog, search the internet, facebook... But now, because the youngest just turned 2, the ages of our younger children are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7! My time is no longer my own, and about 95% of the time that feels really good. (The other 5% is my selfishness when I want to do things only for myself. Like stay in bed all day long or watch movies at night until I can no longer keep my eyes open!)
Maybe saying "my time is no longer my own" isn't exactly what I want to get across. "I'm doing more for others (our 9 children) and less for myself" may be more along the lines of what I'm trying to say. Doing for others just feels right. I am so glad that God put adoption on our hearts.
In Christ,
Karen
P.S. I'll try my best to post again really soon - with pictures! For now, I need to go milk our goat, do the laundry, clean up, etc etc...
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Welcoming in 2013
Last night was wonderful and an awesome start to the new year! Our family welcomed in 2013 with some dear friends of ours, the Elliotts. It wasn't the plan originally for them to stay, but God orchestrated it so they could. We talked, laughed, ate and prayed. We watched the movie La Montana, which I'll talk about in a later post, and discussed our plans for 2013 and what God had on our hearts.
The Elliotts are going to begin their fundraising efforts to help with adoption costs of a special needs child, possibly from Ukraine, along with opening their home to special needs children through foster care. We are going to be welcoming home our children and adjusting as a family of 11. Big changes for both our families in 2013.
Kevin and I talked about volunteering more, especially with our older children. We want to do more for God as He has given us so much. We are excited to see what He has in store for us beyond adding our new children to our family.
Happy New Year, friends! I pray that you have big hopes for 2013 and you are looking to God for how He wants to be such a big, big part of your year.
In Christ,
Karen
The Elliotts are going to begin their fundraising efforts to help with adoption costs of a special needs child, possibly from Ukraine, along with opening their home to special needs children through foster care. We are going to be welcoming home our children and adjusting as a family of 11. Big changes for both our families in 2013.
Kevin and I talked about volunteering more, especially with our older children. We want to do more for God as He has given us so much. We are excited to see what He has in store for us beyond adding our new children to our family.
Happy New Year, friends! I pray that you have big hopes for 2013 and you are looking to God for how He wants to be such a big, big part of your year.
In Christ,
Karen
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